Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers

Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers: Armenia succeeds Andorra

Strasbourg, 16 May 2013 - The 123rd session of the Committee of Ministers was held today in Strasbourg with Gilbert Saboya Sunyé, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Andorra, in the Chair. At the end of the meeting, the Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers was passed by Andorra to Armenia.

The Ministers' discussions chiefly revolved around a report by the Secretary General on strengthening the impact of the actions undertaken by the Council of Europe concerning democracy, human rights and rule of law. They encouraged the Secretary General to continue his efforts to optimise the functioning and co-ordination of the Organisation's monitoring mechanisms while taking care that better use was made of the conclusions drawn from the monitoring actions. For that purpose, the Ministers invited the Secretary General to present them regularly with a situation report on democracy, human rights and rule of law in Europe founded on the conclusions of the monitoring mechanisms, accompanied by definite proposals for action.

Co-operation with the European Union and Council of Europe policy towards neighbouring regions were also on the meeting agenda.

During the session, the Committee of Ministers also adopted Protocol No. 15 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Protocol will be opened for signature by member states on 24 June 2013.

Armenia will chair the Committee of Ministers for the next six months.

Back 25.04.2013 - Prime Minister Martí: Andorra's key challenge is to open its economy

25.04.2013 - Antoni Martí Petit, Head of Government of Andorra, today claimed that the most important challenge for his country today is moving towards a more open economy, based on cooperation, transparency and equality.

 

Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly, he defended applying a moderate taxation as a competitive advantage for Andorra. He explained progress already achieved in aligning the Andorran tax system with the rest of European countries and in fighting tax fraud, and also the plan to create an income tax in the near future.

 

Mr. Martí recalled that Andorra´s accession to the Council of Europe 20 years ago was a key step in the integration of Andorra in the political and institutional European framework, and acknowledged the organisation´s contribution to its political evolution.


Speech [fr]
Video of the speech